In a wireless network in which a standard channel bandwidth is defined for communication channels therein, it may be desirable to enable capable devices to select and communicate according to channel bandwidths that differ from the standard bandwidth. For example, it may be desirable to support channel bonding, in which multiple standard-sized channels are combined, and/or channel halving, in which a standard-sized channel is divided into two non-standard sized channels. However, modifying a communications protocol for a wireless network according to techniques for supporting variable channel bandwidth that are not backwards compatible with the protocol implemented by existing devices may cause those devices to become unable to communicate over the wireless network. As such, techniques for supporting variable channel bandwidth while maintaining backwards compatibility for existing devices may be desirable.